Sunday, November 15, 2009

Results, November 12-15

OZ Academy's latest show, on 11/15, was mainly to set up the next series of feuds. After some of the old ladies beat up the kids, we then had Chikayo Nagashima (w/Toshie Uematsu) and Sonoko Kato (w/Tsubasa Kuragaki) back on opposite teams. Nagashima pinned Kato and now they will meet in singles at the next OZ show at Shinjuku FACE on 12/6. I'm wondering if this feud, the highlight of OZ 2007 for me, will start again?

Carlos Amano beat Manami Toyota in a non-title match and naturally demanded a title shot. No date given yet, but I'm expecting this to be part of OZ's year-end show at Korakuen Hall on 12/23. The main event saw AKINO and Ran Yu-Yu retain the tag belts over KAORU & Takako Inoue, with Ran pinning KAORU. On the tag title front, AKINO challenged Aja Kong, and there will be an all-Jungle Jack battle. I'm guessing Aja and Hiroyo Matsumoto will challenge at the year end show.

Of course, KAORU's loss is supposed to mean the end of the Ozaki Army Corps. Mayumi flipped out, of course, "exiled" KAORU, and those two are meeting in singles at the Korakuen Hall show. It's going to probably be a hardcore match and possibly a deathmatch. I don't know the status of Takako or Hiren or Mika Nishio & Police, as far as to whether they will remain loyal to Ozaki or not.

WAVE started a six-man Captain's fall tournament. The rules are silly, as the captain is "secret" and getting pinned does not eliminate a competitor. You keep going until you are lucky enough to pin the right person. Plus the tournament has FIVE teams, so they had a first round today, with a repechage round for the first round losers. Uematsu, Ran, and Ryo Mizunami beat GAMI & the Shirai Sisters, with Miz getting a nice winner over the veteran GAMI. Shu Shibutani, Kana, and Ayumi Kurihara also won in the first round. The repechage saw GAMI and the Shirais beat Yumi Ohka, Moeka Haruhi, & Misaki Ohata. It was stupid, as Ohka pinned both GAMI & Io in the first 4 minutes, but OOPS Mio is the captain. So it would make no sense for Mio to ever tag in. I don't know if she tagged in or not, but eventually GAMI pinned Yumi. So those three teams and the comedy mish-mosh team of Bullfight Sora, KAORU, and Cherry will decide this on 11/25.

Team MAKEHEN is folding. The final show is at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on 12/13. This means that Basara (aka Tyrannosaurus Okuda) will be a free agent. She's still recovering from her neck & shoulder injuries, originally suffered in 2008 while she was in Sendai Girls and re-injured this year shortly after her comeback, so her participation will only be photos & autographs. I don't think she's going to win 2009's Junior of the Year in joshi puroresu, as it's been a disaster of a year for her. Hopefully 2010 will go better for Basara and the industry as a whole.